Pink Crayons
by Infinite Snow
Summary: Before he met her, his world was a monochrome world of blue. He never knew that one simple brush with his kindergarten crush would make him like pink, a girly color! AU-ish. No charas. [IkutoxAmu, Amuto]


_It was a ruckus. Kids had no decency what so ever! They would just slobber papers with paint, and nearly choke stuffed animals. The kids were little monsters when the teacher was not in the classroom. Ikuto cringed when he saw the mess. Being a five year old had its downsides._

_Ikuto crawled to the side. He opened a plastic bin on the bookshelf and grabbed the box of crayons._

_He looked inside. Blue ones were his favorite. They matched his hair and eyes. That was the only color meant for him. When he went for the crayon, he tugged it and his chubby fingers couldn't let the crayon loose._

_Ikuto turned the box upside down, and dumped out all of the crayons. They came splashing out and Ikuto picked up his desired one and started scribbling aimlessly on a piece of paper._

"_Hey, can I borrow a pink crayon?" an angelic voice that made Ikuto's heart flip. It was his crush, Hinamori Amu._

"_Why?" Ikuto asked._

"_Well, that is the only box. And I kind of wanted to draw…" Amu said with a shy voice._

_Ikuto's heart was hammering inside his poor ribs. He could be seen, if you looked closely, he was shaking._

"_Well?" Amu asked cutely, cocking her head to the side in an adorable manner._

_Ikuto was turning red._

"_S-Sure…" Ikuto mumbled before looking away from her. Amu warmly smiled, making Ikuto's neck flush red._

"_Thank you!" Amu squealed in happiness and she took the pink crayon from the mini-pile and started scribbling on a piece of paper. Ikuto couldn't handle it if his crush started drawing next to him._

"_W-What are you doing here?" Ikuto asked in horror._

"_I want to draw next to you!" Amu beamed, nearly melting off Ikuto's face._

_Throughout the time they spent together, Amu beamed at his blue crayon drawings and she prided in her pink creations. Ikuto looked at the pink crayons she had with her. Light pink and dark pink blended in to create gibberish drawings that to an ordinary person would look so weird. But to Ikuto, they were beautiful. Pink never looked so beautiful and luscious._

_After Amu left at the end of the day, she forgot her pink crayons and drawings. But Ikuto kept hers and his own. They were precious._

"_Pink… for some reason they look so beautiful," Ikuto murmured._

-x-

"Everybody, we have a new classmate joining us," Nikaidou happily chirped. Everyone groaned.

"Stop being such mood killers!" Nikaidou slammed his hands on his desk. Ikuto rolled his hands at the teacher's antics.

"When she comes, I do not want this classroom to be full of a bunch of groaning idiots!" Nikaidou yelled, causing the class to groan but the boys looked up in interest. Ikuto's mood dampened. He doesn't care about another girl classmate. His heart was stolen by Hinamori Amu and torn by her when she suddenly disappeared after kindergarten.

And this was high school. Some people were willing to ask him: Why is he willing to wait so long?

The answer is simple: She made him adore red. She made him admire white. And she made him fall in love with the color of the two in one – pink.

Ikuto rubbed his head as the teacher walked out of the room to retrieve the new student. He fingered with both of their crayon drawings, and Amu's light and dark pink crayons. He remembered Amu and her beautiful pink hair and dark red X clips. She was the reason he fell in love with pink.

"Ah she is here! Himamori san!" Nikaidou happily yelled. Ikuto's heart sped up.

"It is _Hinamori _you idiot! Get it right!" a familiar voice yelled. Ikuto's heart could have ripped out of his chest.

There in front of the whole classroom was his kindergarten heartthrob. Hinamori Amu was in a modified version of the school uniform with a satchel overflowing with art supplies. She wore a slight pink beret with a huge X on the side in deep red.

She was also not a happy camper, must I say.

She was glaring at all of the boys who were having naughty thoughts about her and couldn't keep it in their pants.

Ikuto suddenly remembered all the boys giving her a lustful and inviting stare, so he glared holes into the boy's heads. The mood of the classroom had dampened and Nikaidou was profusely sweating.

"W-Well, your s-seat will be next to Tsukiyomi san. Tsukiyomi san, please raise your hand," Nikaidou called.

Ikuto tried in his will power to look bored. He lazily lifted it and quickly lowered it. Amu caught his action and her liquid gold eyes widened.

Amu didn't say anything but her eyes betrayed her. They were beyond shocked and Ikuto knew it. Amu tried to cover it up with her façade and soon enough people were crying out, "Cool and Spicy!"

Ikuto wanted to just go and pound fists into their heads. Don't they know how much she doesn't want to be called such a name? Like she wants to be recognized as a girly girl?

Amu plopped all of her stuff down on her desk next to Ikuto. Next to Ikuto, Utau smirked. Utau liked Amu because she knew the pinkette liked her brother for who he was.

Utau took a piece of paper out of her notebook and scribbled something on it. She passed it to Ikuto. Ikuto opened it and read.

_So when are you going to confess to your fiancé?_

Ikuto blushed and scribbled, _She is NOT my fiancé! Get it right, Utau!_

Utau made an angelic pout. She then scribbled, _So shall I tell Tadase to marry her instead?_

Ikuto's fists balled, much to Utau's delight. He scratched onto the paper, _You aren't her mother._

Utau silently laughed, and wrote, _I am not, but I know how to play as a matchmaker._

Ikuto's face paled of color. Utau was right there. Utau had brought together Rima and Nagihiko, Yaya and Kairi, and even Nikaidou and Sanjo.

Just to be short, whoever Utau wants to put together, she can accomplish it. Even with the most stoic of the people, she can get it done.

Ikuto glared at his sister and Utau held her hands up in a mocking manner. Amu was looking at their silent exchange of note and clearly knew they were talking about her. Amu sighed quietly and curled her fuchsia hair around her index finger while listening to Nikaidou's rambling, though she perfectly knew what the girly man was talking about.

Ikuto then ended the silent stare down with Utau and silently slipped glances to Amu. She hadn't changed much but her body had developed well and her hair had grown.

Ikuto had silently hoped that Amu didn't forget him over these years. Even if she did, he would make her remember him.

-x-

Amu packed her stuff. It was lunch time. Whenever she heard fan girl screams she knew it was girls just pouring over Ikuto's looks.

Amu knew better. There was so much more than cat like ears and feathery midnight blue locks. There was infinite things more appealing than smoldering sapphire eyes. She liked him because he cared about her as a friend. After the crayon incident they would always draw next to each other.

"_He probably forgot me," _Amu thought, _"It was just a stupid crayon incident."_

Amu trudged to the cafeteria. She got her food and sat at a table. She was not interested in any of the hot athletes who were giving her lustful stares.

Amu started to draw a beautiful version of her kindergarten scribble scrabble: a pink unicorn. It was doing the stance that she tried to perfect at the age of five but failed to do.

Suddenly there was a chubby hand holding on and tugging her blazer. Amu stopped mid sketch and looked around. She saw a short blonde with wavy hair.

"I am interested in you," she said bluntly. Everyone gasped in the room.

Amu raised an eyebrow.

"And I want you to eat lunch with me and my friends," she said.

"But what is your name?" Amu asked.

People gasped again and she rolled her eyes and glared at everyone. They went back to their normal routines. Rima faced Amu with an apologetic look. Amu raised an eyebrow.

"They think for me to make friends is like the end of the world," Rima sighed and then gave a teeny tiny small smile at Amu and whispered, "Come on."

Amu smiled back and followed the short blonde to the circular table where Rima sat.

"Who is this?" Nagihiko smiled. Rima snorted.

"My first best friend," Rima said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I thought I was your first best friend!" Yaya pouted.

Rima snorted and said, "No. You are my first friend. Amu is my first best friend."

"But you two met in the same day," Utau protested. Rima cut her short with a sharp glare that made the taller blonde shrink back in fear.

"I have an eye of finding potential true best friends," Rima smirked.

"How do you know?" Yaya challenged.

"I know. And you slowpokes will find out much later," Rima smirked again. The rest were left in a mystery but they left it at there.

Amu smiled. She put down her lunch and sat next to the spot that Rima patted down for her. Amu felt accepted, and more than that, appreciated that she is who she is.

-x-

Amu was putting her books up in her locker. She was so wiped out from the school day she could call it a day. But Rima had given her the slip and asked her to join some kind of club called the 'Guardians' which she was formally accepted into. She said yes because Rima asked her.

"Can you believe it? Ice Queen is taking bait."

"Yeah, that Cool and Spicy girl seems nice. And now she will be tainted."

"Oh come on, Yuki. We all knew Rima was a manipulator."

"But Yua! She is taking advantage of a NICE girl!"

"We can only hope that Hinamori san kicks into her senses."

Amu's eyes narrowed. Rima was waiting around the corner, about to cry. But she held it in for what Amu had to say. That was the make it or break it situation. Ikuto and Utau stopped to see the situation and they too, watched with interest.

"Manipulative, you say?" Amu menacingly asks.

"Yes," one of the girls said confidently.

"Who is Yua and who is Yuki?" Amu calmly asked the two girls. The girl who was Yuki had short auburn hair and bright blue eyes. The girl who was Yua had long black hair and green eyes.

"And what is this about Rima you two are just babbling on and on about?" Amu asked.

"She is using you," Yua spoke up and Yuki nodded.

"How do you know?" Amu cut in sharply before Yuki could speak.

"Well, I know she just glares at everybody so she might be a villain at heart so-"

"Oh shut up," Amu glared at the two girls. They were frozen.

"Just because she might be this so called Ice Queen you two just babble about, you don't know her. She might be suffering from something deep down inside and here you go, just backstabbing her when she is not around," Amu glared at the two girls.

"So you aren't going to leave her?" Yua asked.

"No."

"Why?" Yuki demanded. Amu cut her off with a glare.

"Because," Amu started, "She is not a mean person. Gossipy people like you are not worth it to be her friends."

Yua and Yuki's faces burned in embarrassment and Amu smirked and went in the direction of the Royal Garden, outside the school. Ikuto fingered the drawings inside his satchel and Utau was astonished. Rima was crying with tears of joy. She finally had a true friend!

-x-

Rima had stuck close to Amu. The little blonde knew the pinkette was a keeper as a friend. Ikuto knew that except the Cool and Spicy attitude, Amu hadn't changed at all. And her love for pink only grew.

Amu smiled to herself as she sketched something in pink. Ikuto smirked and sneaked up on her. Amu gave a tiny shriek and Utau smirked. She was going to push these two together.

"What are you doing?" Amu tried hard to keep up her façade around her crush.

Ikuto rolled his eyes and wrapped an arm around Amu's shoulder.

"Oh come on, drop your act. I know you better than anyone," Ikuto smirked. Amu just focused on her drawing and picked out another shade of pink.

"Yeah for kindergarten," Amu murmured.

"What happened after that?" Rima asked.

"My parents moved. They were so caught up with their jobs that they went wherever money was high. We returned to our old house when their jobs here would give them the highest pay," Amu sighed.

"Your parents… no offense sound like money is so…" Rima just stumbled around with her money.

"Yeah they sound money hungry. But they care very much about me," Amu smiled at Rima, making Ikuto's heart flip with the smile.

-x-

It was a few weeks later. Ikuto couldn't remember her, Amu decided. She just kept minimal contact with Ikuto ever since she saw him. Utau noticed and then she got out her phone and called Rima.

Rima answered. He face twisted into a scowl, and she spat, "What do you want, pigtails?"

Utau grimaced and knew getting Rima's cooperation would be hard so she had to keep it together, "Hey shortie. Listen. I have no time for your listless rambling. I want to push Amu and Ikuto together."

"So you knew," Rima said slowly.

"Yes. And I want you to push Amu and I will push Ikuto. We need them to get in the same room," Utau said eagerly. Rima thought it over and she smirked on the other line.

"Fine. Give me the details," Rima smiled.

-x-

Amu sighed as she came out of art class. She and Ikuto were the best of the art students. They could paint, sculpt or draw anything they were told to do.

Amu kept her head down as she got her things from her lockers. Suddenly, her phone beeped. Amu whipped it open and it was from Rima.

_Meet me in the gymnasium – Rima_

"That's odd. Rima is not an athletic person," Amu thought to herself. She went to the gymnasium as instructed. When she waited by the doors of the gym two little hands pushed her in. Amu knew that was Rima. That little blonde is setting her up with something.

"Rima let me out!" Amu yelled and tugged at the handles only to find some hard resistance on the other side. Rima locked the doors!

"Oof!" Amu heard a noise coming from the other side from the large gym. Amu turned and gasped. From the other doorway, Ikuto was pushed in by Utau and the doors were being locked behind him.

"Ikuto?" Amu asked.

"Amu?" Ikuto asked.

"What are you doing here?" They asked at precisely the same time. Then both of them blushed. Ikuto gestured a hand at Amu to go first.

"Rima pushed me in. I thought she actually wanted to meet me here which is weird, as she is not an athletic person," Amu said.

"Utau might have pushed me in, I think," Ikuto scratched his head, "She sounded weird in her text, like she was giving me a thousand excuses to come in here."

"Really? Because Rima bluntly asked me to meet her here," Amu said.

"Rima is blunt. We all know that," Ikuto said as a matter of fact.

"True," Amu shrugged her shoulders.

Then a silence came upon them before Amu broke it.

"Hey Ikuto, I have been meaning to ask you," Amu uneasily started, "Why do you always have crayons in your bag?"

Ikuto froze and he asked, "How did you know that?"

"Utau would rummage in your bag and pull them out, laugh over it and put it back. She would also pull out these drawings we drew when we were little," Amu said, paling at the end. Why did she tell him that?!

Ikuto didn't answer and Amu softly padded even closer, making his heart beat even more.

"You kept my stupid crayon drawing after all these years?" Amu's eyes softened, "And you even framed it?"

"It was not stupid," Ikuto accused, "It was beautiful."

"It was a deformed pony," Amu rolled her eyes.

"Unicorn," Ikuto butted in. Amu laughed and shook her head.

"Fine," Amu laughed, shaking her head at Ikuto's childishness, "Whatever you want it to be."

"A beautiful pink unicorn," Ikuto insisted.

"I can't believe you KEPT it," Amu said after a while of laughing.

"Why not?" Ikuto asked.

"Because they are just crayon drawings," Amu sighed.

"No they are not," Ikuto insisted, "They are much more than that."

"Oh really now?" Amu asked. Ikuto couldn't be serious, right?

"Yes. Before that, I only liked blue. I could have grown accustomed to green or maybe even black, but liking pink was way out of my league. I never liked it to the point of loathing it. It all changed when I met you," Ikuto smiled.

Amu's heart paced inside her chest.

"I really liked it after I met you and when we did crayon drawings together, I loved it. The teacher would have thrown it away, these drawings and crayons, but I kept them," Ikuto sadly smiled, "And then I didn't see you for all these years. I thought you moved on, and liked someone else."

"No other girl crossed your path?" Amu asked.

"No. I waited for you so long to the point that Utau said she would make me date one of my fan girls at school if I didn't get a life," Ikuto closed the distance and lovingly caressed Amu's face, "But as I proved her wrong, you came back."

Amu couldn't contain it. She was selfish to say that Ikuto was hers and only hers. She thought he would move on and find some girl with normal hair color. But he didn't.

"You know, I never knew we would meet ever again," Amu let some tears slip and Ikuto busied himself with wiping them away, "I waited to the point of being scared."

"You don't have to be scared anymore," Ikuto pulled her into a warm hug and whispered, "Because you are going to be my girlfriend. And possibly and most definitely my wife."

Amu blushed. Another thing she knew about Ikuto was how if he liked something, he would farfetch his imagination about his future with it.

But that sounded nice, starting a life and another chapter of her life with someone meant for her, someone who she knows she can love and be loved back.

"Yeah," Amu whispered, barely containing her joy, "That sounds nice."

"Then it will happen," Ikuto whispered.

-x-

The pair stood there and hugged and didn't notice a pair of blonde teens high fiving outside the gym as they watched through the door windows.

"And that," Utau proudly started, "Is how you create a perfect couple. Take notes, my pupil!"

Rima rolled her eyes at Utau's pompous voice and socked her in the shoulder while sarcastically drawling, "Oh Utau sama, this is your fourth match already! Is there any end to your fake charms?"

Utau growled and they started a side story of cat and mouse chase.

_-fin-_


End file.
